Being Ares
by Arianwen P.F. Everett
Summary: A crossover between the Xenaverse and 'Being Erica'. After the press conference in 'Soul Possession', Ares finds himself being offered the opportunity to to travel back through time in order to make different choices and change the person he's become.
1. Chapter 1

Authoress' Note: This story beings immediately after the events of the Season 6 Xena episode 'Soul Possession', and approximately eight years before the pilot episode of 'Being Erica' takes place.

PS. While you have to be familiar with Hercules; The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess to read this story, you don't need as much background on 'Being Erica' to follow along. In that series, Erica Strange, a 31-year-old woman living in Toronto in 2009, undergoes the same time travel therapy featured in this story, in order to learn from her regrets over her past choices. While Erica's doctor is Dr. Tom, the therapist featured in 'Being Ares', Dr. Naadiah, appeared in a handful of 'Being Erica' episodes and was once Dr. Tom's therapist and his mentor during the series. In short, 'Being Erica' lends its premise and a few of its characters, but this is first and foremost a Hercules: The Legendary Journeys / Xena: Warrior Princess fanfic.

 **Being Ares: Pilot**

 **Part 1**

A Xena: Warrior Princess / Being Erica Crossover

By Arianwen P. F. Everett

Ares breathed in the thin, cold air near the top of Mount Fuji, and sighed. Somewhere deep inside, he'd known he'd end up here this afternoon. He'd put on a good show for himself, dressed in his favorite suit, mounted his best chopper to carry him though the California landscape to her side, but he'd always known she'd win. She always won, and now without the contract there was no guarantee he'd see her again. Oh, he knew who she was this lifetime, but Annie Day was as mortal as Xena, and she'd been gone in a few decades at most. Who she reincarnated as next was anyone's guess. Eventually she'd reach Nirvana and then there wouldn't be anymore reincarnations. He'd be in love with her forever and she would be no more. For the first time, he finally understood Callisto's obsession with attaining oblivion. Right about now it sounded pretty good to his own ageless ears.

The feeling of another god's arrival left him sighing once more. He didn't need their bullshit right now. Yes, he went over the top at the press conference, and yes, he risked exposure, but he didn't care. They knew that as well, and yet they'd have their stupid hearing anyway. Athena was long dead, but her bureaucracy lived on.

"You okay?" Aphrodite probed gently, earning a small chuckle from her brother. Without answering, he breathed in deeply one more time before resting his chin against his well-defined chest, as if he were so tired that holding up his head was too much effort. Considering what he'd been through today, what had been reignited in him, she'd lay odds that even as a god he was truly just that tired.

"So, when's the wrist slapping?' Ares finally asked five minutes later.

"I called in a favor with Baby Bro. He was ticked about the contract, but he convinced them that a hearing wasn't going to change anything. Demeter gaveled out the meeting and set our lawyers out to spin it. Nobody's happy, but nobody was surprised either. After all this time, they know what she does to you," Aphrodite explained, snuggling her golden lucks against the back of her brother's jacket. She was here for the duration, just like him. Ares heart was broken, again, and so Aphrodite couldn't be anywhere else.

"Knowing Jercules, he's taking the three of them out for dinner to get reacquainted, probably offering them another hokey television series as we speak," Ares sulked, jealousy surging through him. His brother's TV show and successful career as Kevin Sorbo irritated him, but knowing the half breed would be welcomed into her new life, while he'd be viewed as a nuisance at best, left a ball of molten metal in his guts.

"He's their friend, and yes, he's happy they're back. I am too, but you're family. You'll always be more important to me," Aphrodite affirmed, letting Ares know she was there for him. Despite the millions of worshipers, priests, and minor-god minions who had sworn their undying devotion to him over the centuries, she was one of the few who'd ever really been there when he needed it.

Her brother valued that loyalty more than he could express, but he knew he had to throw her something. "Don't take this the wrong way. I mean, I'm grateful and all, but I'd like a few more minutes alone, here. I'll come back to Olympus when I'm done, but I just need some space right now."

"It's okay, Ar. I understand. Just don't stay out here too long. You have a tendency to get stuck here for decades or centuries, and Olympus gets totally boring without you," Aphrodite insisted, remembering Ares previous absences. They all knew where he went and why, and whenever he was away, the amateur scheming and machinations of the younger gods combined with the rigid attention to detail and procedure of the older generations could turn the home of the Greek Gods into a major snooze fest.

"I'll be back by tonight, I promise," Ares offered, letting his sister know he wasn't about to let his current funk overwhelm him. For all his inner turmoil the fact remained that Xena was back, and despite what had transpired at the press conference today, he couldn't help but hope his one in a billion chance had returned with the love of his life. Staying up here on this mountain where she'd fought her final battle in spirit form would rob him of that chance as the years passed and Annie aged and, eventually, died. If this could end up being their final hurrah, he had to make it memorable enough to last eternity.

His regrets certainly him. If only he'd handled her differently, recognized his feelings sooner, perhaps he could have saved the bond between them. Who knows, maybe he could have stopped the Twilight in his tracks, or given her more information and prevented Gabrielle's rape by Dahok. Then Strife would still be alive as well. He'd lost so much back then, but her loss eclipsed them all.

He needed to say it; if he didn't he'd drown in his regret. Taking a deep breath, Ares bellowed, making the Earth shake beneath him. Let the gods bicker over that tomorrow. Today he'd show his power. "Xena lives!"

A few minutes later, after regaining control of the roiling emotions that always sprung to the surface at the sound of her name, the God of War reached into the aether and willed himself home as he'd done millions of times before.

But this time, when he opened his eyes, he was not in his rooms on Olympus. Reaching out with his powers, he soon discovered he was no longer in Japan either, or anywhere else on the mortal plain. Reaching for the gun that had replaced his sword over a century ago, Ares scanned the spacious room that was mostly white with various piece of art that all focused on the color blue scattered here and there. For some weird reason, his mind went to Athena's old digs on Olympus. They'd had the same minimalist, self-possessed feel, if not the same color scheme. Sudden he heard a calm, female voice behind him. "Hello Ares. Welcome."

Spinning around to point his gun at the voice, Ares found his potential target. The woman was standing in behind a modern desk, another blue canvas situated behind. Her soft, black hair was cropped down to a pixie cut, while a plum duster, blouse, and slacks set clothed her slender frame, along with the requisite jewelry and light makeup worn by middle class women of her era. Whoever she was, he'd never seen her before, but somehow she knew his name and appeared to be the only source of answers as to where he was and why he was here. "I don't know who you are, lady.. or if you even are a lady.. but you've messed with the wrong god here! Now where in hell am I and who are you?!"

"My name is Naadiah. I'm a doctor, a therapist, and I'd like to help you if you'll let me. Please, put the gun down. It won't work here anyway," Dr. Naadiah replied calmly, seating herself behind her desk, as if a blood-thirty war god wasn't holding her at gunpoint.

Testing the woman's claim, Ares pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. No kickback, no satisfying bang, no gray matter spattered all over the blue of the bullet ridden canvas, just the click of an unloaded weapon.

Rolling his eyes, he sent the gun away and materialized his favorite sword, only to have it disappear a moment later with a nearly imperceptible purse of this Naadiah-person's lips. If that was how this mortal Doc wanted to play, he could work with no weapons. Shaking his left hand in anticipation, he summoned up a fireball, finally getting a eyebrow raise out of the otherwise implacable woman, only to have a light sigh extinguish the flame before he could launch it at her. Out of options for attack, Ares growled low and folded his arms across his chest, refusing to admit defeat to this mortal he knew almost nothing about save her name, occupation, and taste in decor.

"Are you done?" Dr. Naadiah asked, tilting her chin upward in defiance. She remembered her first lesson in Doctor Training; you are your patient. If Ares was going to be stubborn, she would be equally as stubborn and wait him out. She had to give him time to listen to her offer. He was a god, after all, and used to being in control of the situation. In that expectation, Naadiah found the first hint of their commonality, and she sat quietly, giving him a moment to adjust to what was happening.

When he finally did, his palms came crashing down on her desk. "I don't know what game you're playing or who put you up to this, but I am Ares: God of War and I will not be jerked around! Now what do you, or the master you serve, want, and why have you brought me here?!"

"Ares, I know you're used to other gods, and mortals for that matter, jerking you around as it were, but that's not what's happening here. You have been granted a rare opportunity to solve your problems and better your life. As for what I want; I want to help you. That's all. No tricks or ulterior motives; I just want to help," Naadiah repeated, knowing her claims would be hard for him to believe.

"Help me with what? What could a mortal like yourself possibly help me with?" Ares questioned angrily, beginning to pace back and forth around the woman's office space.

Naadiah knew the rules. The commitment to therapy came first, but if she wanted Ares to agree, she also had to bait the hook. "Your relationships, your life trajectory, all of it is tied together. Take what happened at the press conference today..."

That got Ares attention and earned his ire. "What happened at the conference was what always happens when Xena and her tag-alongs show up! It was inevitable!"

"No, Ares, it wasn't. What happened today was the result of a series of choices, some made in the moment, some the product of centuries of decisions compounding on one another, but none of which was inevitable. That is what this therapy is for, to help you see your choices for what they are and make better ones going forward. However, if you want my help you first you need to make a commitment to the work, to the process. We can't move forward otherwise," Dr. Naadiah responded, laying her cards out on the table before the God of War, both literally and figuratively. Once he'd taken her business card he could either accepted her help or he not. It had to be his choice, but the waiting for a decision was always the most difficult part of the process for her.

"Lady, I've been trying to move forward for nearly two thousand years with no success," Ares sighed, the day's events draining him. Under normal circumstances, he'd strangle this woman with his bare hands for taking away his offensive powers and directly challenging his life choices, even though he'd been doing exactly the same thing less than half an hour ago back on Mount Fuji. Despite her abilities, he could tell that she was fully mortal. She wasn't a god and she wasn't infused with a god's power. Still, he'd known mortals who could harness godlike powers without a deity's help, like that woman Xena had briefly studied with in Chin, Lao Ma. Whoever she was, this Naadiah was powerful, but still human, still breakable, but at this moment he was too tired to break her.

What's more, a part of him wanted to believe her. If he could change the way he made decisions, perhaps he'd discover how to make the ones that would win him Xena's affection. Maybe this was the way to his one in a billion chance where Xena would voluntarily choose to invite him into her life. "This help, this therapy, you're offering me, all I have to do is commit myself to it? Come on, what's the catch?"

"No catch. You commit to seeing the entire process through and we can begin," Dr. Naadiah replied, fighting the urge to smile. She loved her work as a therapist, and she loved helping people discover their better, more effective selves. This man was a god, but she had no doubt that working with him would be no less rewarding, and his most recent question gave her hope he was on the verge of committing himself to the process.

"And you're not angling for anything, money, your own army, a taste of ambrosia? Because I won't be held hostage to any of that," Ares made clear, wanting to see if this human woman was serious. He knew that mortals were indeed capable of this kind of selflessness. He'd seen it before, in Xena and in the bumbling fool, Joxer, but he knew it was a rare trait. Most humans had an agenda. In that way, they were most like the gods.

Dr. Naadiah did smile this time, not at the god's concerns, but at the mental image of her leading an army. That was so not her. "Correct. All I need from you is a commitment to therapy, to changing your life for the better, nothing more and nothing less."

Ares stared across the desk at Dr. Naadiah, seeking out any hint of deception or manipulation, but found none. Either she was sincere or she was better at hiding her self interest than the gods themselves, which was to say something. "Alright. You have my word. I will see this process through till the end. After all, I have centuries of bad choices, and how long can you live, right?"

Laughing heartily at the joke, Naadiah grabbed the fresh notebook she always put out for new patients and handed it to the God of War. "And on that note, please make a list of the worst of those 'bad choices', point form, if you please."

"Can do." Ares replied gamely, before beginning his list. Oddly enough, the task was simpler than he'd made it out to be. Yes he had thousands of years of bad choices, but only forty or fifty that really stuck in his craw. The others he'd worked around and considered learning experience, but the ones he was putting to paper had taken over his entire life. Mortal warlords remained the same. They might call themselves gang leaders or mafia kingpins today, and they might use bombs and automatic riffles instead of swords and Greek fire, but he could control them and spur them on as well as he ever could. Even world leaders with their finger on the nuclear button were malleable to his influence and required little effort to bend to his will. Centuries of experience at his craft gave Ares plenty of down time to rehash his mistakes, over and over, century after century, so listing them was easy, and at the top of that list, of course, was letting Xena choose her end in Japa.

Finishing his list, he handed the four pages of regret over to his new therapist and watched as she examined it. Several moments later, she found whatever she was looking for near the top of the second page and turned the notebook back to Ares. "Tell me about this one, number 28, 'Evander'."

"Why that one? Wouldn't it be better to start at the top, 'Xena's end at Mount Fuji'?" Ares asked, confused as to why Evander's name had caught her eye.

"Because this is the process. This is the way it's done. I promise, we'll cover each and every regret, but right now, we start with Evander. So, tell me about him; who is he and what happened between you two to make him a regret?" Dr. Naadiah responded, dropping the notebook on her desk as she patiently stared Ares down and waited for an answer to her questions.

Ares took a deep breath before beginning. He'd given his word and she did say that they'd eventually get to every regret, so he saw no reason to push his new therapist on such a trivial matter. He'd pick his battles and this one wasn't worth it. If she wanted to start with Evander, so be it. "Evander is my son, one of thousands, but still my son. His mother was Nemesis.."

"The Goddess of Divine Justice, correct?" Dr. Naadiah interjected, the name striking a vague memory of a first year classics course she'd taken as a humanities prerequisite back in university.

"Former Goddess of Divine Justice. She decided to question Hera's judgment over which mortals deserved smiting, and in response, mom stripped her of her godhood. Ofcourse Nemesis was terrified of living as a human and the inevitability of death, so when I came to her with an offer to make her a goddess again if she gave me a son, she accepted. Evander was the result," Ares detailed, helping Dr. Naadiah get a picture of the events that led up to Evander's birth.

"So, Nemesis gave you a son, Evander, and you made her a goddess again?" Dr. Naadiah pressed on, wanting to make sure she got the her new patient's story straight.

"Well, I kind of reneged on my end of the deal, but then again, so did she. Nemesis became attached to the child and refused to give him to me, so I refused to use my influence to make her a goddess again. I still had some of my soldiers hounding her and the kid for years, but to no avail. Evander grew up with my idiot half-brother, Jercules, as his role model," Ares sulked, hating to admit his defeat at the hands of the half-mortal. He may never have loved Evander, but he'd wanted the boy to seek his attention the way Hercules had wanted Zeus' notice in his youth. Instead, Hercules and Nemesis had made him irrelevant.

"It seems like this is more of a disappointment than a regret. I get that Evander wasn't raised the way you would have liked and that you were kept from him, but a regret requires that you wish you'd done something differently," Dr. Naadiah guided, wanting to hear what Ares would try to do differently.

Suddenly feeling a bit uncomfortable discussing this with a mortal, Ares shifted in his seat and cleared his throat before speaking again. "The regret isn't in what happened but in how it happened. I should never have pushed Nemesis to have a child with me. Despite the fact that I was the eldest son of the King and Queen of the Gods, she'd always looked down on me, as if the fact that she had been forced to kill mortals as a goddess somehow made her better than me."

"Then why did you feel a need to manipulate Nemesis into giving you son?" Dr. Naadiah continued, forcing herself to remain non-judgmental, despite the fact that Ares had all but admitted to raping this Nemesis. Dr. Naadiah had to remind herself that whatever the reason, the universe had put him in her path to help. Obviously there had to be someone worth saving from their own self destructive impulses if he'd been chosen for this therapy and she would treat him as she treated all her other patients.

"Well, a few weeks before I propositioned Nemesis, I'd briefly been turned mortal as well, and though Xena had helped me get my godhood back, I just wasn't feeling like myself again. I guess you could say I needed a jump start and I figured that knocking up my dear brother, Hercules' first love, when she was at her weakest and most desperate, was just what I needed to get back on that malicious horse. If I had to do it all over again, I'd find another way to validate myself as a god again, maybe change Nemesis sex or screw with her memory or something. Then Evander would never have been born, never freed Hera from the Abyss of Tartarus, and my last memory of my mother wouldn't be of her throwing a fireball at my back!" the old, familiar rage resurfaced and Ares efficiently put it in its place, saving it for his work life. The past was the past and there was nothing he could do about it. He and Dite had survived. That was all that truly mattered anyway.

That struck Naadiah where she lived. In her mind, she could still hear her mother's voice calling her 'sick' and 'mentally deformed', when she'd come out to her family, only to have her brother, Doug, call her the very next weekend to inform her that their mother had suffered a massive heart attack and was dead. Yes, Dr. Naadiah knew what it was like to feel despised by your own mother and to have death take away any chance you might have had to make amends. Finding her voice again, Naadiah refocused on her patient. After all, she'd made a commitment to him as surely as he'd made one to her. "Well then, Ares, you have a lot of work to do this time around."

"This time around? What do you mean 'this time around'?" Ares asked as he started to feel a unique type of chill come over him, one he'd not experienced in millennia. He'd had to wrack the deepest recesses of his memory to place it, but once he did, he gasped, only to have vomit spew out of his mouth.. and into the Aegean. Painfully, he wrenched the contents of his stomach out over the side of a sailing ship, his head pounding ceaselessly. From what felt like far away and off to the side, he heard a voice he'd hoped never hear again ask 'What are you looking at?', which was followed by the reply of a long dead warlord who'd attempted to kill him 'A poor excuse for a warrior." The exchange was followed by the behemoth's meaty hand slapping his back, forcing a final round of dry heaves before Ares was able to wipe his mouth, and despite the slowness of his mind right now, he'd already pieced together where, and more importantly when, he was. He was in the past, sailing out to that island where Sisyphus had hidden his sword, and that first voice beside him and the forearm resting companionably near his own was Xena's, in Callisto's body, but still Xena's.

All his love for her rose to the surface and he kept his eyes clamped tightly shut. She probably thought he was fighting more nausea, but in reality it was his heart that he was desperately trying to master, not his stomach. She was so close and so unaware of what the future held. Right now, even with all that he'd already done to her, she might be able to forgive him, to love him. It would take enormous effort and time, the latter of which he didn't know how much he had, but if that powerful mortal therapist, Dr. Naadiah was going to give him this chance, he wasn't going to waste it. Taking a deep breath, he forced his rampaging emotions into line, looked up at the temporarily blonde Warrior Princess, and spoke. "Thank you again, for doing this, for helping me get my godhood back."

"Ares, I don't want your thanks; I just want the world righted again. Besides, you never thanked me in the first place," Xena commented, not even looking at him, but at the water beneath them. She was strategizing, trying to figure out what was going on. She had no time for his feelings at the moment, and Ares pushed down the urge to say anything more. When he'd first figured out how totally in love with her he was, he'd accosted her in Tartarus. She'd been fleeing Hades and the Proxidicae, with her son in tow, all while in the early stages of labor. He'd wanted to discuss their relationship. She'd just wanted to protect her children and the Blond. It had been selfish of him, but he'd not understood self sacrifice at that point. Now, with all his future memories intact, he did, so he silenced himself and joined her in watching the sea's waves spraying against the side of the ship.

It wasn't like he didn't have his own strategies to plan. His feelings for Xena aside, Ares had nearly died twice on this adventure, and he needed to scrounge every detail he could from his wine-soaked memory to ensure that the two of them survived this time as well.

As the hour ticked by he barely noticed when a biscuit and some hard cheese was handed to him along with a water skin. Looking around the ship, he saw the warlords they were traveling with, along with much of the ship's crew, chowing down on the same meager offerings. He looked to Xena, who was seated on the deck, sniffing the cheese and cracker wearily. Eventually she nodded to him and began to eat, taking a slug from the skin she'd been given along with the meal. Joining her, he took his first bite of the cheese, memories of his two years on her grandparents' ramshackled farm flooding back to him. This kind of food kept you alive, nothing more, but as staying alive these next two days was the goal, he finished off his cracker and cheese, saving some of the water for later. He remembered that too, fresh water was life, and not always available. While he knew Sisyphus' plan didn't include poisoning them with tainted beverages, she didn't, so he joined her in limiting his water intake and focused on his own thoughts and recovering from the last vestiges of his hangover.

"You're awfully quiet for someone sitting so close to the woman he's loved for two thousand years." a voice commented, startling Ares and bringing him to his feet. Despite dressing like an ordinary Greek woman of this time, Dr. Naadiah appeared totally out of place and for some reason, Ares worried for her.

Nobody, including Xena, noticed her, so he could only assume they couldn't see the therapist, but that didn't mean everyone else in the universe was as blind. He knew very well that his parents and most of the other gods were watching and having a good chuckle at his expensive. If they found out that Naadiah had sent him back in time from the future, he'd be hauled in for violating Zeus' rules on time travel and she'd soon be a husk of smoldering ash for sending him back in the first place. Even though he'd just met her, Ares was none-the-less touched that this woman wanted to help him, wanted to teach how how he could make his life better, and he had no desire to bring about her demise. At the very least he owed her for the attempt on his behalf. "Dr. Naadiah, I appreciate this opportunity, really I do, but you can't be seen talking to me. I mean, you might be able to hide our conversation from mortals, but my divine relations are all currently tuned in to Ares TV, and if Zeus finds out about you, he'll…"

"Relax. He can't see me, and from his perspective, you're still sitting over there, thinking. You needn't worry and you have my word that I would never put either of us at risk like that," Dr. Naadiah soothed, beginning to see the better part of her patient's nature in his concern.

"Yeah, well, Zeus believes knowledge is power and there is nothing he wouldn't do to learn about the coming Twilight and eliminate anyone or anything that threatened him. I couldn't allow that then, and I would die to prevent it now, but my odds of success wouldn't be that great as a mortal. After all, I'm no Jercules," Ares quipped bitterly, watching Xena monitor the warlords while occasionally glancing over in his direction, or at least the direction he'd been in before standing up to speak with Naadiah.

"If I remember my Xena Scrolls correctly, didn't you side with your father in exchange for his permission to kill Hercules?" Naadiah asked, trying to sort through what she'd heard friends and girlfriends tell her about Xena: Warrior Princess. It was difficult being a gay woman in the late nineties and early two-thousands and not be into that show. Everyone talked about it and analyzed it for what they called 'subtext', and to not follow along, at least somewhat, could make you a pariah in certain circles. Naadiah preferred reading to television, but she kept up with her friends' interests and Xena was definitely one of them.

"That's what I wanted Dad and my Dear Brother to think. The plan was to pretend to attack Hercules and let him kick my ass, so he'd assume I was out of the picture. Once he found Chronos' rib for me, I'd relieve him of it, shank Dad, and save Xena, Blondie, and the baby. I'd be their hero, not Jercules, and with a Rib of Chronos in my possession, I'd be top god to boot. What I never counted on was Mom's betrayal, a betrayal that wouldn't have even been possible if Evander had never been born and never freed her from the abyss. And what about that? I thought you said we were going to start with my regrets over Evander. This.. experience turned out well for me, and I don't regret a second of it!" Ares insisted with absolute conviction, his confusion beginning to convert to his more natural state of anger. He couldn't understand why he was enduring this. He was a god; he shouldn't need a therapist, certainly not a mortal one at any rate.

But what she'd said about his being able to learn new ways of decision-making, that had appealed to him. He needed to learn how to deal with Xena before Annie Day died and he lost track of Xena's spirit. He could wait an eternity so long as he had that contract, but now there were no more binding promises. Somewhere, deep inside he knew that this mortal woman, this Dr. Naadiah and what she'd promised to teach him was now his only hope for finding happiness with the woman he loved, so he'd throttle his brewing anger at her methods and let her lead him for now. However, that didn't mean he wouldn't question those methods.

"You said it yourself, you only approached Nemesis about giving you a son because of what happened here, because you wanted to feel like your old self again after what you'd experienced, here. This is where the choice to sire Evander had its origins, so this is where I sent you," Dr. Naadiah returned with emphasis, knowing it was natural for new patients to question, but always becoming a bit defensive each time it happened. Thankfully she'd learned to cover it well in her three and a half years as a fully fledged doctor.

"Alright, so what do I do? Do I just continue on as I did before? Do I change things? What are the rules?" Ares asked, accepting his task. He was a god after all; he knew how these spiritual quests typically went, that there were rules, that action was more valuable than introspection, yada, yada, yada. Although it was usually the god who sent the mortal on the quest, not the other way around. Well, if the twilight taught him anything, it was that everything changed in time.

"That's up to you. You need to do whatever you feel needs doing. So go. Do. Learn," Dr. Naadiah stated encouragingly before turning and heading down the steps that would take her below deck, and into her office from whence she came. For now she'd done all she could, so she sat down, picked up the dog-eared copy of 'Bulfinch's Mythology from the corner of her desk, and waited for her newest patient to make progress on his first regret.


	2. Chapter 2

Authoress' Note: This story beings immediately after the events of the Season 6 Xena episode 'Soul Possession', and approximately eight years before the pilot episode of 'Being Erica' takes place.

PS. While you have to be familiar with Hercules; The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess to read this story, you don't need as much background on 'Being Erica' to follow along. In that series, Erica Strange, a 31-year-old woman living in Toronto in 2009, undergoes the same time travel therapy featured in this story, in order to learn from her regrets over her past choices. While Erica's doctor is Dr. Tom, the therapist featured in 'Being Ares', Dr. Naadiah, appeared in a handful of 'Being Erica' episodes and was once Dr. Tom's therapist and his mentor during the series. In short, 'Being Erica' lends its premise and a few of its characters, but this is first and foremost a Hercules: The Legendary Journeys / Xena: Warrior Princess fanfic.

 **Being Ares: Pilot**

 **Part 2**

A Xena: Warrior Princess / Being Erica Crossover

By Arianwen P. F. Everett

As Ares made his way towards the castle Sisyphus would stage the 'competition' for his sword, he marveled at how much was coming back to him, and how each word and each step was bittersweet in both its familiarity and its brevity. He'd already made up his mind to follow the script he'd written the first time as much as possible, but wasn't looking forward to being injured in their fight this evening over who would be the first to challenge Sisyphus' made up monster at dawn.

And yet, Xena's binding of his wounds from that skirmish would be the stuff of his dreams for centuries to come. Her touch had been all Xena, exuding everything he would one day grow to love about her, her strength, her efficiency, and her unique brand of gentleness. True, most women were gentle, but it was a gentleness born of weakness or overbearing compassion; Ares had no use or desire for that. Xena's gentle touch was born of restraint, a knowledge that she could kill or permanently injure her patient, but chose not to out of concern for the person she was tending. In a way it was an expression of respect as well as medical assistance, and Ares couldn't deny it was one of her most wonderful qualities. No, he wouldn't sacrifice tonight for anything. He'd take the hit from Virgilius if it meant he could relive all that again, but having greater experience with pain during his time as a mortal farmer, Ares vowed to be a bit less whiny about his injuries. Whiny was never attractive, especially to a woman like Xena.

As they arrived at the castle, things went down as he remembered. While he ultimately allowed Virgilius to cut him with the splintered pillar candlestick edge, he gave the mammoth warrior a sore jaw this time around with a roundhouse kick. While he knew it made no difference, Ares couldn't help himself; he'd gone through this fight a million times over the years and from hindsight it was easy to spot the large man's weakest moments, the moments he should have struck but had been too stunned by the pain in his lower back to do so. And if getting in shot to the man who'd nearly killed him the first time wasn't enough, he received an unexpected reward from Xena in the form of an offhand "Nice kick by the way." as they entered the bedroom to bind the open wound on his back.

Then he felt Xena's hands on his back and his heart leaped. The pain he remembered from the first time not daring to show its face thanks to the endorphins his mortal brain was producing at being so near to the woman he'd loved for so long. While he was once again disappointed when the dying, mute warlord Gagnon broke in and fell dead at their doorway, soon to be followed by his killer and his killer's bemused apology over the interruption, Ares consoled himself with the hard won understanding that it wasn't the right time for himself and Xena. They'd nearly kissed back then, but even he knew that making out in the middle of this adventure wouldn't have gone well. It would have made her feel awkward and broken his twenty-first century heart when she'd pushed him away. There were plenty of bleak centuries ahead where he would need this memory to warm him; he wasn't willing to risk it over a few stolen kisses, which to her would be viewed as a sign of weakness and to his younger, foolish self, a front on which to manipulate her when Dr. Naadiah returned to the 2001 to work on more regrets. Although he had no idea why, the Fates had chosen to be uncommonly generous with him today and he didn't want to test them.

As the night really set in, Ares found himself searching for his sword by Xena's side. He knew Sisyphus had yet to place it on the dead man in the main hall where Xena had killed the old timer with the dagger that had been left in their room. He'd forgotten about the rat that had startled him but no amount of time could make him forget being swung over a fire pit while razor sharp spikes closed in on him. Intentionally enduring that trap had been the most difficult thing he'd done all day, but if he hadn't, if he'd sidestepped the trap entirely, Xena would have noticed and realized that he'd known it was coming. He couldn't explain how he'd known or he'd be putting them and Dr. Naadiah in danger, so he allowed himself to be swung about and shouted with the appropriate amount of terror, all the while knowing Xena would save him.

He hated acting so pathetically. He would fight in mortal form many times after the final battle on Olympus that had left Athena and half of their family dead, but explaining that would be even more dangerous than explaining how he'd known where Sisyphus' traps were, so Ares bit the inside of his cheek and endured this humiliation in front of Xena along with her smug smiles and occasional quips about how useless he was without his godhood.

As they continued to make their way through the castle, Ares remembered telling Dr. Naadiah about how Nemesis looked down on him when she'd been a goddess, and he suddenly realized that Xena had treated him the same way when it came to his being mortal. The mocking she and Gabrielle had heaped on him when they first got to the farm, the way they'd used him as a prop in their little peep show for Caligula, a part of Ares suddenly felt the betrayal of nearly two thousand years piling on him, as potent as the love he'd experienced earlier, and his next words flew out of his mouth before he could stop them "I may not be the most competent mortal, but considering I've only been at it for less than a week, I'd say I'm doing damn well! And I'd like to see how well you'd adjusted to my godhood in such a short span of time! Being the God of War isn't some game, Xena! It's not merely some excuse to go off and kill mortals whenever the mood strikes! It's who I was born and who I was meant to be! By the Gods I love you, but you just don't get it!"

Ares had never really seen Xena shocked stupid, but he was seeing it now on Callisto's face, and a part of him wanted to laugh, at least until it suddenly hit him as to why she was so shocked. He'd just told her he loved her and put all his feelings on display twenty-eight years before she'd even begin to believe him! Now he was the one stunned stupid and he didn't know how to fix what his mortal mouth had just done.

"Ares, duck!" Xena shouted, catching the throwing dagger that had zoomed right over his head and into her experienced hand as the three remaining warlords chuckled menacingly at the two of them.

Ares cursed himself as he spun around and readied his mace for an unscheduled fight with the three remaining warlords. The volume of his outburst had lead them right to him and Xena, and now the two would have to fight their way to his sword. As if things couldn't get any worse, Ares realized that Xena hadn't yet figured out that Sisyphus had stashed the prize on the warlord's corpse in the next room, so if he made a beeline for it, she'd think this had all been one of his schemes to get her back, including his recent profession of love for her.

Realistically it would probably be for the best. He'd already taken them seriously off course just now with his big mouth, but try as he may Ares couldn't bring himself to just fight his way to the sword, reclaim his godhood, and have Xena believe this last day together had been another attempt at controlling her and turning her back into a toy. In a few years he'd tell her that he'd rather die in her arms than live without her in his, and judging by the hungry expressions on the three warlords they now faced, he might end up making good on that claim. Perhaps his earlier assessment had been wrong. The Fates hadn't been showing him their generosity; Clotho had just been spinning him enough thread to hang himself.

As Tegason charged them, Ares dug deep inside himself to that placed he'd learned to go when running from warlords before Xena had left him on her family's farm. Fighting low, he ducked the man's swipe, then leaped high to kick the sword form his hand before using his rotation to swing at the man's head with his mace. The perfect crack told him he'd hit his mark and that the man brain had caved under the force of the strike before the other side of his head even hit the wall he'd been sent into. Carus made the fatal error of throwing his ax at Xena, only to have her deflect it back on him with a shield she'd pulled off the wall. It buried itself dead center in his chest and he fell to the ground, just as the blood flowed from his lips, leaving only Virgilius, but then, Virgilius had been the hardest to kill the first time around as well. Looking to Xena, they both gritted their teeth and prepared for the fight.

"Behold the once fearsome Ares, whipped by Callisto!" Virgilius barked before taking a swing at Ares who barely ducked in time. Whipped, the same word Athena had used at Amphipolis. He loved Xena, he really did, but that was going a bit too far. Neither of them ever conceded a damn thing. Lifetime after lifetime they fought. He wasn't whipped!

Momentarily forced backwards a single step by Xena's boot to his massive midsection, Ares was able to slip behind the behemoth and grab a torch from the wall, wielding it like a fire-tipped club. But with an agility most wouldn't expect from such a large man, Virgilius managed to duck out of the way and made it to Tegason's body and the sword still clutched in his dead hand, before Xena could reach it herself. Seeing the only woman he'd ever loved penned in the narrow hallway about to be gutted, her chakram still in the underworld attached to Callisto's hip, Ares took a deep breath and threw his whole body weight on Virgilius, forcing the man to stumble for several seconds before tossing Ares like a rag doll into the same wall he'd sent Tegason's head into.

Ares felt his left arm slip its socket and the force of the throw bruise or possibly even crack a few ribs. The wind had certainly been knocked out of him and he could barely roll away from the strike of the sword. Seeing the burly man about to try again, and unable to move again as he was no pressed to the opposite wall from the one he'd been sent careening into, Ares prepared to kick Charon's ass out of his own boat in anger when Xena planted the ax she'd retrieved from Carus' chest into Virgilius's back. In shock, the man teetered a moment before landing straight on Ares, breaking a rib free and sending it straight into the former God of War's lung.

Ares gasped over and over, as darkness descended, while Xena forced the body on top of him off and knelt beside him. Forcing himself to stay conscious, Ares gasped as she grabbed his hand. He knew what she'd thing when he said what he was about to say, but it wasn't his time. If he died now, who knows what her future might hold. He had to be there, even if she hated him. He should be used to her assumptions of the worst, but it still hurt almost as much as the pain in his chest and the burning in his entire body from the limited oxygen he was getting. "My sword. My sword is in.. in the room. The room.. with.. bodies."

Anger, betrayal, and an unexpected hurt flitted across Callisto's features, and Ares second guessed his efforts to preserve his life so he could preserve hers in the future. If it had been Xena's true eyes, he would likely have broken into a million pieces, but the proxy body he'd put her in served to keep him focused enough to do what had to be done, regardless of what came next.

Trying to retract the raw emotion written on her face, Xena jumped up and raced into the next room. Ares knew she wouldn't risk mankind going bat-shit crazy just to teach him a lesson and that she'd be back as soon as she found the weapon, but as the moments ticked by, he couldn't help but grieve the connection they'd formed this past day, both times. Yet, despite the creeping cold in his limbs, he held onto life for his one in a billion chance. If he died here and now he'd do so with Xena believing this had all been a con that had turned on the conman, not one of the greatest days in the life of a god who was over forty thousand years old. Death would mean he never got the chance to explain, to make her see that he'd meant what he said. At least he'd gotten that the first time around. Too bad it had cost him half his family and their worship throughout Greece in the process.

A hard slap to the side of his face brought him back to full consciousness, and he felt the weight of his sword's hilt placed into his half-numb hands. Reaching out for the power that had been his since birth, he felt the heat of war overwhelm him, knitting his body together as it re-infused itself into every fiber of his being. Finally able to take a deep breath again, Ares opened his eyes, only to see Xena, Gabrielle, and Joxer standing over him, none of them happy.

Ares closed his eyes again, fighting for control of the pain in his heart, but pulled himself to his feet, his godhood now fully settled around him. "Xena.. I.."

"It doesn't matter. Sisyphus has been returned to where he belongs, and the world has its God of War again. It's what you were born to be, right?" Xena asked pointedly, shutting Ares down before he could explain or apologize.

Almost feeling her pull away from what they'd just gone through, he tried again. If he could just get her to listen to him, maybe he could make her understand why he kept his knowledge of where his sword was going to be a secret, that it wasn't a manipulation but an attempt at keeping them both safe. Dr. Naadiah seemed a nice woman, and he wished he could protect her, but her life wasn't worth his one in a billion chance. Not when he was faced with the betrayal that he could still view deep in Callisto's brown eyes. "Xena, I meant what I said. I…"

"Don't Ares; just don't!" Xena commanded, barely able to reign in the anger inside of her. Gone was the focus of the past few days just when she needed it most. Ares had deceived her again, and for a brief moment she'd even believed he'd fallen in love with her. She wasn't sure which was worse, the betrayal or the humiliation at having been so arrogant and gullible.

"Hey, I don't know what's going on, but you promised Xena her body back if she helped you," Gabrielle interjected, not liking the intensity of the conversation between the God of War and her closest friend, nor the hurt look in both their eyes.

Ares didn't have the heart to laugh it off this time. Once again he and Xena had come so close, and ended up so far away. There was nothing left to say, no playful comments about her keeping mortality or heartfelt replies about his having been human for a moment. No, this battle was most definitely lost, so Ares concentrated on his rooms on Mount Olympus and swapped out Xena's body with Callisto's at the same time. For once in his life he just wanted to go home, and so he did.

Ares hid out on Olympus for the next few days, refusing to see anyone he could avoid. Unfortunately that didn't include his parents. Zeus had been the first to find his way into Ares refuge and spent the his time there reminding Ares that while he'd loved many a mortal woman, he never forgot his duties on Olympus, and that as God of War, Ares couldn't afford to either. To make matters worse, the older god went on to compliment Ares on his taste in women and made a ribald joke about Xena that left Ares on the cusp of attacking his father and getting tossed in the Abyss of Tartarus for his troubles. Thankfully, Zeus had business to attend to that day and, as always, his father's 'business' came before his family. More than once, Zeus' lack of concern had kept Ares from making a truly dumb mistake in his rage, and obviously two thousand years of living without the old man hadn't altered that dynamic to their relationship.

The next afternoon, just as Ares had exhausted his desire to throw fireballs at the side of his mountain home, Hera put in her appearance, and unlike Zeus had made it absolutely clear that she was disappointed in her eldest son. As a mortal, he'd risked his life by tackling Virgilius to protect Xena in that confining hallway, and from Hera's point of view that had to have been a symptom of some sort of madness Ares had inherited from his father. She claimed that her blood had turned to ice when he'd started gasping for air, his lung skewered by one of his own ribs, and she'd begged him to swear an oath never to make her endure that terror again.

Ares had refused, explaining that his love for Xena was nothing like one of Zeus' casual dalliances, but the best thing that had happened to him in his entire life. Asserting the hard won lessons of years to come, Ares had explained to his mother that nothing would induce him to abandon Xena if she needed saving and that his love for her exceeded even his love for living. This had infuriated Hera and she'd flashed out of his rooms in such a rage that the mountain home of the gods shook as she left.

Unlike the hasty lecture from his father, his mother's visit had hit home and Ares splashed some water on his face and changed into a fresh outfit to make himself feel clean again. As with Xena, he had loved Hera irregardless of whether that love was reciprocated. Hearing her spiel of concern for his welfare was like another fireball in the back, and though Ares had been on guard this time around, knowing Hera really didn't care whether he lived or died hurt just as much as it would in that clearing with Hercules three years hence. But if his love for Xena had taught him one thing, it was that he could live with the pain indefinitely. Simply put, he had no choice.

However, that didn't mean he had to remain conscious for it, and casting off his boots, Ares lay down on his silk sheets and fur trimmed bed and attempted to sleep. It was a habit he'd picked up as a mortal to evade his woes, and over the centuries he'd learned that if he could just clear his rampaging thoughts, the technique worked just as well for gods.

Most of his relatives hated his propensity for sleep, but mainly out of a desire to protect their own skins. Shortly after Zeus had been crowned king of the gods, Ares' grandmother, Rhea, had decided to take a nap when the grief at her husband's loss at her son's hand had overwhelmed her, and even in 2001 she was stored in what had been Zeus' wing on Mount Olympus. Everyone knew she wasn't dead, indeed several gods checked in on her every few decades, but she refused to wake.

Ares had occasionally entertained the same sentiment in his own grief, but knowing that Xena would eventually re-enter his life at some future time had always kept him coming back to the land of the living within a few hours of lying down. A part of him wondered if that would change when Annie Day finally left this world and his last definitive tie to Xena went with her. Yes he might still find her, but then again he might not. He had to wonder how long it would take to leave him as desperate for an escape from the reality of his loss that he took his grandmother's route, and left the remaining gods to fend for themselves.

Unable to sleep, Ares masked his movements from the other gods and teleported himself into his grandmother's room. Clearing away the dust that had settled on the comfortable chair that Zeus and Hera had placed next to her bed for any god or goddess that wanted to spend time with her, Ares took the seat and gently picked up Rhea's hand, all the while examining her delicate features. Anyone who looked at her could immediately see where most of the Olympian goddess got their looks from, and her soft wings, like her great grandson Cupid's, flowed around her like a feathery aura. But her hair, and in Ares memories, her soulful brown eyes were all his own.

Unlike the other gods who visited her from time to time, he had nothing to say. For all Dr. Naadiah's instruction to learn, all Ares had learned was how truly heartbroken he was, not only over Xena, but over his family, and how endless his godhood made that pain seem. So he just sat, once or twice looking in on Xena, Rhea's hand still clenched in his own as the days past in silence.

Eventually, unwittingly, Ares began to fall asleep, but quickly shook it off before he could fully reach Morpheus' realm, not wanting to be found by his family and lambasted for his perceived disrespect of their somnolent matriarch. But when he opened his eyes, he wasn't in his grandmother's room on Mount Olympus any longer, he was once again in Dr. Naadiah's office and facing the therapist herself. "Welcome back, Ares."


	3. Chapter 3

Authoress' Note: This story beings immediately after the events of the Season 6 Xena episode 'Soul Possession', and approximately eight years before the pilot episode of 'Being Erica' takes place.

PS. While you have to be familiar with Hercules; The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess to read this story, you don't need as much background on 'Being Erica' to follow along. In that series, Erica Strange, a 31-year-old woman living in Toronto in 2009, undergoes the same time travel therapy featured in this story, in order to learn from her regrets over her past choices. While Erica's doctor is Dr. Tom, the therapist featured in 'Being Ares', Dr. Naadiah, appeared in a handful of 'Being Erica' episodes and was once Dr. Tom's therapist and his mentor during the series. In short, 'Being Erica' lends its premise and a few of its characters, but this is first and foremost a Hercules: The Legendary Journeys / Xena: Warrior Princess fanfic.

 **Being Ares: Pilot**

 **Part 3**

A Xena: Warrior Princess / Being Erica Crossover

By Arianwen P. F. Everett

"I don't understand. I never even saw Nemesis, much less slept with her," Ares grated out, his voice not having been used in over a week as he'd sat with Rhea. Though she'd been asleep, he knew that she understood what it was to love and loose profoundly, and he needed that understanding along with time to think. With the exception of Aphrodite and Persephone, none of the remaining gods had that knowledge, and Persephone blamed him for siding with Xena and getting Hades killed, so silently sharing their grief together wasn't an option. Aphrodite had never had the time or the patience to just sit for days at a time without saying a word, so while her presence could be comforting at times, there was a limit. He knew Rhea wasn't really there for him, but as a child she had been, and some of that love still seemed to cling to his perceptions of her.

"No, you didn't, and as a result Evander was never born, but I don't believed this regret had all that much to do with Nemesis or your son," Dr. Naadiah offered, hoping to draw her patient out. She knew he'd come to some realizations while in his past and he needed to say them, to solidify them for himself.

Ares sighed glumly in agreement. "I guess it didn't. It was all about Xena. It never occurred to me back then, heck I wasn't even sure love was a real thing back then, but whether I believed in it or not I see now that I was already head over heels in love with Xena, and yet, I also understood that she saw me as unworthy of any future with her. I made that deal with Nemesis because deep down I knew it wouldn't work with Xena, and yet I wanted a child, a family, with her. I regretted Evander because he wasn't Xena's son, and had I raised him, I probably would have treated him the way my parents treated me. It's for the best he no longer exists.. but I need to know, does Hera? I mean, is she still stuck in the Abyss or…?"

"No. Without Evander, Zeus used your nephew Cupid's son, Bliss, to rescue Hera and Xena killed her on Mount Olympus almost thirty years later. I'm sorry, but your mother still died in the Twilight." Dr. Naadiah explained, her sorrow for her patient's loss coming through her voice. She'd seen how the Queen of the Greek Gods had feigned fear over her son's near demise in an attempt to control him, yet she was still his mother and there were plenty of unresolved issues her patient would have to deal with in the future. Dr. Naadiah knew that in time they'd get to those; she already knew that at least four of Ares regrets involved his mother in some way, but that hadn't made dealing with her again any easier for the God of War, or for his therapist to watch.

Ares turned his head to the side, not wanting to look Dr. Naadiah's pity in the eye, yet needing to know how his mother met her end this time. "Did she.. did she betray me again? I mean, the fireball.. did she…?"

"Ares, this therapy needs to be about you, not about Hera, not about Nemesis, not even about Xena. Now, if you feel you need to witness what happened during the Twilight in this thread, I believe the gods have a way to view the past back on Mount Olympus, but dissecting other peoples' choices isn't part of our work together," Dr. Naadiah laid down the law, needing to make this point abundantly clear. Learning to accept the choices of others as their own was often the most difficult lesson to learn, especially when the patient had to live with the outcomes of those choices in all their horror. Ares needed to understand that he couldn't go back to alter Hera's decisions, only his own. Everyone needed free will, even the long dead Queen of the Gods.

"You're right, I can always look it up when I get home. If she's dead, it's not really that important anyway," Ares conceded. He hated mysteries, so he'd see it all with his own eyes later, but Dr. Naadiah was right. In the past he remembered, Hera made the choice to side with Hercules and to attack her own son. That had been her decision and her mistake; he had enough of his own to deal with.

"Ares, it's natural to want to be loved, by our parents, by people we're romantically attracted to, by our children, but back there you proved that you understood that your own opinion had to matter more. You wanted Xena's love, yes, but you had the courage to stand up for yourself and you did what you had to do to survive, even when you knew that she'd misinterpret your actions and think the worst of you. Whatever your sister, or your mother, or that warlord may have said, you're not whipped. You're hurting, but you're not whipped," Dr. Naadiah emphasized, needing her patient to view his inner strength for what it was, not what others told him it was. If Ares was to change his life, he needed to learn to listen to his own inner voice, not just react to other voices or let his godhood do the thinking for him, and today in his past, when he'd defended who he was at his core, he'd done just that.

"Thank you," Ares responded, not used to compliments about his character. He knew his therapist was being sincere, but that didn't mean she wasn't wrong. His love for Xena did control him. He might be able to defend himself and he fought her time and again, but in the end she always won and he came back for more. Maybe that wasn't 'whipped', but it wasn't strength either.

"You're welcome. Well, you have an immortal life to get back to and I have a dinner date with a lovely woman I met at the book fair last weekend, so I think we'll end here and pick this up at our next session," Dr. Naadiah announced, standing up from behind her desk and motioning for Ares to as well. While his experiences as a god gave him a leg up on some of the metaphysics of time travel and how this type of therapy worked, the intimacy of the experience and the changes to both his history and himself would required time to examine and integrate into his present life. Once he'd processed and the time was right, she'd bring him in for another session. They had a lot of work to do, but Dr. Naadiah could tell Ares was truly committed to that work.

"And when does this next session begin?" Ares asked, curious as to how the timing of this thing worked.

"Whenever you're ready. Our sessions take place when you need them. There are no set appointments here. You just go about your life and eventually you'll find yourself back here," Dr. Naadiah explained, giving Ares what he needed to know without going into too much detail, some of which he probably knew anyway, the rest he'd learn by doing, the best way to learn anything.

"Alright then. Ugh, how do I get out of here, wherever here is, that is?" Ares fumbled with the question. His understanding of timelines and alternate states of consciousness really were really being tested today, but then he could always look some of her early lessons on the subject up when he got back to Olympus.

"Well, my mortal patients tend to use the door, but feel free to teleport as you normally would. I can bring you here, but I can't force you to stay," Dr. Naadiah conceded, knowing Ares commitment would bind him to this therapy as much as it would a human patient, if not more so. What's more, he wanted this therapy. He knew on a basic level that he needed it, even if he still believed it was primarily to win Xena.

"You mean I could've.. Lady, you are good," Ares chuckled with realization. When he'd first arrived and Dr. Naadiah had shown her control over this domain, he'd assumed he was trapped here until she said otherwise or died of natural causes. Now he knew he'd always been free to go at any time, but had ended up binding himself by his word to see the process through. Well, maybe it was like the mortals said 'when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me'.

"I'd have to be in order to be your therapist, wouldn't I?" Dr. Naadiah countered, causing Ares to burst out into a full laugh as he turned the door handle and let himself out the mortal way. As he went, she could see he wasn't going back to Olympus, but had entered some sort of crowded resteraunt, which judging by the unaccented, English speaking voices, along with a dollar denominated price list etched in multicolored chalk and hanging on the wall, appeared to be somewhere in the United States. Maybe sleeping wasn't the only mortal habit he'd picked up during his time as part of her own species.

The thought of food made Naadiah's stomach gurgled and she decided to head back to her own apartment for a small snack before going out. She didn't want her digestive tract to insult her date with hunger grumbling as they waited for their meal to arrive. Shanly was special and while this was only a first date, but Naadiah had a good feeling about it. Returning to her desk to pick up her purse, with her copy of Bulfinch tucked safely, if heavily inside, Dr. Naadiah left her office the pride of a job well done putting a spring in her step as she went.

As Ares finished off his moussaka and tyropita, he sighed contentedly. He loved America, he really did. At their core, they were his kind of people, always looking for the next opportunity to go to war and always improving upon dishes from all over the globe, even the food of his homeland. The fact that the head chef was born in Patras and married an Californian girl who'd been working in Greece over the summer probably contributed to the quality of the cuisine, but who was he to argue.

"Enjoyin' a taste of the homeland after all that ruckus ya caused this mornin' at the press conference?" a familiar Irish brogue asked, causing Ares to sigh with impatience.

All he'd wanted was a few moments to sip his after-dinner coffee before heading back to Olympus like he'd promised Aphrodite. Now Jercules' ex was here to grill him. Watching the petite redhead sit down, Ares just rolled his eyes and tried to enjoy his drink. "Well if it isn't the Guardian of Justice, what can I do for you, Morgan?"

"Hercules called me. He's worried about your son, Evander; says he can't reach him. His email keeps bouncing back as well. You wouldn't know anything about that, would ya?" Morgan questioned, watching the Greek God of War for any sign of deception.

Ares had spent a lifetime keeping his facial expressions in check in order to keep the likes of Morgan from reading him, yet internally he was extremely confused. Ares had changed the past. Evander no longer existed, yet somehow Hercules remembered him and was searching. He wasn't sure whether Morgan had ever met the immortal Ares had created in his original dealing with Nemesis, but she was asking about him on Hercules' behalf, and Ares had to come up with a believable answer. No way was he going to admit that he was in therapy and that this brand of therapy involved time travel and changing the past.

"I haven't seen, spoken, or in any way interacted with Evander in over seventy years. So no, I don't know where he is, nor do I care. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to finish my coffee and head home," Ares replied honestly. He really didn't know where demigods who were never even conceived went when the original timeline was altered. Hera had taught him about time travel long ago, but as he'd rarely ever used it, he'd forgotten much of her lessons. It was one of the things he planned to look up when he got home, and when he next saw Dr. Naadiah he had to ask why his half brother remembered someone who was never even born.

"Ya know, I would think you'd want to help find your son, considering how many times you tried to get Xena to give ya one," Morgan responded, needing to let the God of War know who was boss.

"I don't think Xena or either of her little friends had anything to do with Evander apparent disappearance if that's where you're going, and just so you know, I would've been just as happy with a daughter from Xena, as any child of ours would have been truly exceptional from birth," Ares replied, attempting to sound casually annoyed, all the while feeling the ever-present pain in his heart surge in his chest at the thoughts Morgan's choice of words had brought him.

At least he'd given unto Morgan as good as he'd gotten. Morgan's mother, Badb, had been a colleague of Ares' and he distinctly remembered all her complaints about her mongrel little girl, how Morgan would never be exceptional with a sword, how Morgan would never be an exceptional strategist, how Morgan would never be an exceptional beauty, and he knew Morgan had been told it all long before it had reached his ears. For the redheaded demigod, that word 'exceptional' was a prize she'd spent her entire youth trying to win, but had never achieved. By letting Morgan know that a child of Xena's would automatically have been exceptional in his eyes, he was rubbing all of her childhood pain back in the smug woman's face. His and Xena's child would never have to crawl on their belly to win their parents' love the way Morgan had, and Ares was making sure she knew it. If his own parents' example had taught him anything it was how not to treat a child you genuinely cared about.

However the insult was a double edge sword, for Ares had spent centuries wishing for that child's presence in his life. Once made immortal, their child, be it Eve or another, would have been such a comfort as he'd tirelessly searched for Xena's reincarnated spirit and the scroll that would unite them for eternity. Evander had only been an irritant, and on a few occasions, a burden. Ares was glad to be rid of him, but Hercules' memories could cause problems down the line.

He would definitely have have to speak with Dr. Naadiah about it. Perhaps she'd have some insight to the incongruity. Right now, Ares was too focused on his memories of today. He needed to see what had changed and what hadn't. He needed to find out what had happened to his family this time around and most importantly, he needed to understand how his and Xena's relationship had been altered by his efforts in the past.

Yes, Ares was looking forward to his next session with Dr. Naadiah, so much so that he missed the fact that for the first time in thousands of years, he was looking forward to something other than seeing Xena again.

 **THE END**


End file.
